About Distortion Pedals

A distortion pedal is past the edge of breakup. It is the plexi crunch, the RAT grind, a wall of mids that turns a chord into a slab. Overdrive leans the amp forward. Distortion is the amp already there: tighter clipping, more compression, a riff that stays thick when you dig in. This page is that gain: Marshall-style preamps, ProCo RAT voices, distortion-plus-reverb, and high-gain boxes built for a mix that has to cut.

If you want a lighter push, start with overdrive pedals. If you want wool, sag, and octave dirt, see fuzz pedals.

How to Choose

• Plexi / Marshall preamp: British crunch in a box, for players who want that head in the chain. The LPD Eighty7 Plexi or the LPD JMP79.
• RAT grind: mid-forward, slightly gated, the distortion a lot of records actually used. The ProCo Solo or You Dirty Rat.
• Distortion plus space: gain and reverb in one motion. The Walrus Melee.
• Octave distortion: the interval inside the grit, for doom and volume-as-religion. The EarthQuaker Sunn O))) Life.
• Modern high-gain: tighter, louder, more mix-ready. The Westminster Seth Morrison 2716 V2, Knox V2, or the Osteen V2.

Where Most Players Start

• Walrus Melee: distortion and reverb on a joystick, for riffs that should not stay polite.
• EarthQuaker Sunn O))) Life: octave, distortion, and a booster, the heavy collaboration that turns a riff into a wall.
• LPD Eighty7 Plexi: plexi preamp distortion, British crunch without a full stack in the room.
• LPD JMP79: JMP-style preamp, the Marshall neighborhood in a pedal.
• ProCo Solo: a RAT-family distortion with more range than a single-flavor box.
• Westminster 2716 V2: Seth Morrison’s high-gain voice, built to sit in a modern mix.
• ProCo You Dirty Rat: the dirtier RAT, for players who want that grind a little uglier.
• Westminster Knox V2: tight distortion with Westminster’s voicing, for riffs that need to cut.

The Walrus Fundamental Distortion is the next stop if you want that same idea in a smaller box. Browse the distortion pedals below and pick the one that sounds like the record in your head.